Rally Cry (37 page)

With a toot to the whistle the engine pulled out of the station and quickly gathered speed as they slipped into the first downhill grade.

The diminutive train rocked and pitched over the tracks, and Andrew gulped as he leaned over and saw the long grade back down toward the mills.

The six Suzdalian brakemen stood to their posts and grabbing hold of their heavy oaken levers leaned in with all their weight.

A wild shrieking rent the air, and with sparks flying the train careened down the track. Andrew looked over at Kathleen, who nervously drew closer to him. Her hand slipped out and took his, and he drew her closer. It was the first time they had touched each other in weeks, and he felt a delicious chill run through his body.

There had been no time over the last two months—nearly every moment he had been out on his rounds, while she had jumped into the role of establishing a school to train nurses for the forthcoming battle. Weeks had gone by without their even seeing each other, and he had been surprised when his offer for this day off had been so eagerly accepted.

On down the hill they roared, passing the foundry, grain mill, and sawmill.
All the time she stayed close by his side, while even
Ferguson showed a look of nervousness at the wild bone-jarring ride.

As they dropped down out of the hills,
Fort
Lincoln
came into view. The switchman leaped to his position and threw the lever over.

The engine roared onward, hitting the turn with such speed that for a second Andrew thought the train would leap the track, but it stayed on its course, rattling over the mill-stream bridge heading north.

Onward they raced, over the rolling countryside, the party relaxing now that the worst part of the ride had been passed, but still Kathleen lingered by Andrew's side.

They came to a gentle downward grade into a towering cathedral of pines. There had been talk of razing them for fuel, but somehow Andrew could not bring himself to do that, war or no war, and he had ordered this stand of forest to be spared.

He was glad now of his decision as the scent of pine washed over him. Looking heavenward, he delighted in the shafts of light breaking down through the towering tops of the forest, and sparing a sidelong glance, he saw that Kathleen was taking pleasure in the view as well.

The train rattled over another bridge and the forest started to broaden out. They charged past the spot where Mikhail had confronted them on the day they had first marched toward Suzdal.

The man was still alive to the east, Andrew thought, uniting the cities of Vazima and Psov, where all who wished to submit to the Tugars had fled, seizing the position of Ivan, who had died, like Boros, during the riots. In many ways Andrew realized it was for the best to have such a place. That way the only ones who stayed were committed. He could only hope, for the sake of the hundreds of thousands who chose not to resist, that the Tugar wrath would not descend upon them out of revenge.

They crested up out of the dale and the city of
Suzdal came into
view,
and at the sight of the train, a distant cheer went up.

Onward the train rushed, the city walls coming closer and closer. Holding down the whistle, Malady signaled ahead, where the switchman threw the lever over to send the engine northward around the edge of the city rather than to the south heading, still uncompleted, that led down to the docks.

The incongruity of it all filled Andrew with delight. Suzdal still looked for all the world like a vast medieval setting for a fairy tale, its log structures, onion-domed buildings, and church spires standing out sharp and crisp in the chilly morning air. Onward the train rattled, crossing through a gate to pass inside the breastworks, where thousands of laborers now worked to throw up the outer line of defense for the city. It seemed as if the entire city had come to a standstill, as the Suzdalians, filled either with fear or astonishment, watched the
Waterville
chugging past, Malady merrily tooting the whistle and waving.

Kal climbed atop an ore hopper, waving excitedly, and started to dance a jig. Andrew and the others laughed at his antics, all of them knowing that the wily character was showing off to calm the fears many would have over this bizarre contraption.

Running down along the east wall, the track finally reached the northern edge of the city and turned east near the banks of the
Vina
River
and headed toward the great mill. Finally one end of the line came into sight, and the engine slowed and came to a halt.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Emil was the first to jump off, the others quickly following. As the group watched, a team of Suzdalians swarmed up to the ore carriers, attaching ropes to one side. Two burly men stepped up to either side of the car and knocked out wedges under the sides of the hoppers. With a pull on the ropes, the hopper tilted over, while its carriage remained on the track. A torrent of ore spilled out onto the ground, and in an instant a gang of laborers swarmed over the rock and set to shoveling it onto the horse-drawn wagons waiting for the load.

Malady came back to the group, grinning broadly, his face and hands smeared with grease.

"She runs like a honey, she does. Little leaky around the cylinders, and the wheels aren't quite in full round, but not tad for a first try."

Andrew looked at the group and smiled.

"Shall we go up the line and check on the progress?"

"What I was hoping for," Mina said. "A lot's been done in the last week, sir."

"All right, major, lead the way."

Going over to a wagon, the group hopped aboard. Kal jumped up front, grabbed the reins, and snapped the two massive horses into a trot.

Following the track roadbed up the gentle slope, they passed hundreds of men laboring with picks to cut the grade, while others, carrying baskets tied to their backs, struggled with loads of crushed rock.

Kal called good-natured comments to the men. He stopped several times to leap off the wagon, lend a quick hand or trade comments, and then jumped back up and set off again.

"He's like a stump politician splitting a rail or two to show he's of the common folk," Emil said while Kal was off the wagon to help with a group trying to lever a rock free from the frozen ground.

"Another old Abe," Andrew said, and the group laughed.

Rounding a turn in the path, they stopped before a flat open field over a quarter mile across. The field was packed with several thousand men.

Andrew called for the wagon to be stopped, leaped off, and started across the open area.

"Hans!"

The old sergeant turned around, a look of exasperation on his face, and at the sight of Andrew turned back to the group under his control.

"Company, attenshun!"

The hundred-odd men under his control snapped rigidly into place, bringing up the wooden sticks which were still the substitutes for muskets.

"And you call yourselves soldiers," Hans roared, his Suzdalian nearly incomprehensible, and giving up, he turned to a torrent of abuse in English.

The men seemed to understand nevertheless and looked nervously about.

Andrew came up to Hans's side and let the sergeant vent his spleen. Finished at last, Hans looked back at Andrew and snapped off a salute.

"Sir, Company A of the 1st Suzdalian would be honored by your inspection, sir."

"Thank you, sergeant."

"Company, present arms!"

The men snapped their wooden staffs up and nervously looked straight ahead.

With Hans standing respectfully behind his commander, Andrew stepped forward and started down the line.

Could this ever possibly be turned into an army?
he
thought grimly. The men stood ankle-deep in the slushy snow, most of them with feet wrapped in nothing more than strips of burlap. There was no semblance of uniforms yet; effort could not be wasted in that direction. He had seen the Confederate Army go from the gray that was still around in '62 to the tattered rags of late '64, but even the rebs at their worst could not compare to the wild collection of filthy robes, shirts, and bare knees that stood before him now.

We don't even have guns yet, Andrew thought grimly. It'll be months before they start being turned out in any numbers.

Andrew walked down the line and stopped before a burly man at the end of the ranks.

"You ready to kill Tugars?" Andrew asked, looking the man in the eye.

Nervous, the man nodded back.

"You'll be fine soldiers, just fine. Just remember to listen to the Yankees teaching you. When we're done, we'll see dead Tugars piled up like cordwood."

Andrew slapped the man on the shoulder, knowing that what was said would be shared with the others and spoken in the city by nightfall.

Andrew turned away from the line and looked over at Hans.

"Sir, they're learning the drill—we'll even have them up to regimental drill in a week. But not one of these buggers has any idea what it's all about."

"Just keep at it, Hans, just keep at it."

Andrew walked away from the sergeant, who went back to chewing out the men, and continued to stroll across the field. He stopped to watch several drills, and spotting
Hawthorne, he went over to observe what the corporal, who sat on the ground with a knot of several dozen Suzdalians gathered around him, was doing.

Hawthorne
did not even notice his approach. On a cleared patch of ground
Hawthorne was drawing a line and talking to the men, who eagerly were asking questions back.

Noticing that Andrew was watching them, one of the men snapped to his feet, the others quickly following.

Hawthorne
, seeing the colonel, came to attention and saluted.

"Good morning, sir."

"Good morning, son. What are you doing?"

"I was just explaining to the men how by forming two lines we can pour out a continuous sheet of fire to the front, and then I was showing them what a flanking maneuver will do to an enemy line."

"But why not hide when the Tugars shoot?" one of the men asked, unable to contain his curiosity, in spite of Andrew's presence.

Andrew looked at
Hawthorne for an answer.

"Because, Dimitri, if we all run off and hide, you behind this bush, me behind another, the Tugars will break our formation up. Once broken up, we cannot shoot together and our officers cannot lead us. No, our line must be a wall, against which the enemy breaks himself—that is our best chance. Also, if we are scattered about they can easily get around our sides, and I showed you how four men on your side can defeat ten without difficulty. If we are together we can prevent the enemy from turning our flank."

"But many of ours will die," Dimitri said, showing his confusion.

"Yes, some of us will die,"
Hawthorne replied, "but with men like you, many more Tugars will die first."

Satisfied, Dimitri grinned and nodded.

"You're a good teacher, Hawthorne," Andrew said, drawing Vincent aside.

"Thank you, sir."

"Have you ever read Hardee's manual on drill and tactics?"

"No, sir, my reading's never been in that area before."

"Well, son, I think you should study Hardee. It was Hardee's manual and Sergeant Schuder who taught me the business. Come to my headquarters tonight and I'll give you the books."

"Thank you, sir."

"And how is Tanya?"

Hawthorne
blushed, and the men, recognizing his wife's name, laughed good-naturedly.

One of them stood up and extended his hand in front of his belly, and the others roared.

"She's not that big yet, sir,"
Hawthorne said shyly.

"Well, carry on with your work," Andrew replied, and returning
Hawthorne's salute he walked back to the wagon where the rest of the group waited.

The party continued on its way up the hill. As the road turned to run along the banks of the Vina they passed the dry river bed which had been stilled for weeks.

The trees lining the bank gave way to reveal the gorge straight ahead. From one end to the other the earthen bank rose above them, covered by an antlike host of tens of thousands of people who, carving away the hills to either side, carried their burdens of rock and soil in a never ending chain.

The group fell silent, as all did when they first saw the great work before them.

"It looks like something out of the Bible or ancient
Egypt," Kathleen whispered, seeing for the first time this greatest project for the master plan.

"The walls are up over twenty feet already," Mina said. "We're just over halfway done."

Kal looked back at the group beaming with pride, since, of all the projects, he felt this one to be most his own.